The Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) (English: National Centre for Space Studies) is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public administration with industrial and commercial purpose"). Established under President Charles de Gaulle in 1961, its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is under the supervision of the French Ministries of Defence and Research. It operates out of the Guiana Space Centre, but also has payloads launched from space centres operated by other countries. CNES formerly was responsible for the training of French astronauts, but the last active CNES astronauts transferred to the European Space Agency in 2001. CNES is member of Institut au service du spatial, de ses applications et technologies.

CNES concentrates on five areas:

France was the third space power to achieve access to space, sharing technologies with Europe to develop the Ariane launcher family. Commercial competition in space is fierce, so launch services must be tailored to space operators’ needs. The new versions of Ariane 5 can launch large satellites or perform dual launches while the Vega and Soyuz-2 are small and medium-lift launchers.

Jean-Yves Le Gallou (born 4 October 1948, XIVe arrondissement, Paris) is a leading French far right politician, member of the European Parliament since the 1994 election.

Le Gallou began his political career as a member of the Republican Party, although in 1974 he joined Yvan Blot in setting up the Club de l'Horloge. As the club developed links with GRECE Le Gallou grew in importance as he served as a link between the Nouvelle Droite tendency and mainstream politics.

Le Gallou grew close to the National Front and helped to develop their la préférence nationale policy of the 1980s, which called for welfare, health, education and job provisions to be given to French citizens of autochthonous origins first. He soon joined the party and rose in influence, joining Blot and Bruno Mégret in developing the party'sneo-liberal economic policy. He was one of the 11 FN members elected to the European Parliament in the 1994 election. Meanwhile, Le Gallou became a close associate of Mégret and followed him into the National Republican Movement.